ISO: TTO
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The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth
World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women
Secretariat.
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AS WRITTEN
STATEMENT BY SENATOR THE HONOURABLE JOAN YUILLE-WILLIAMS
MINISTER OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, CULTURE AND WOMEN'S AFFAIRS,
REPUBLIC OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO,
AT THE FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN,
BEIJING, CHINA, SEPTEMBER, 1995
As Mrs. Mongella said, here we finally are in Beijing... and let me add,
we are here prepared to live up to our commitments to the women of the
world and produce a Platform that is action-oriented and designed to put
a final end to the discriminations that women have suffered far too
long.
Madame Chairperson, on behalf of my delegation of seventeen, which is
composed of six persons from the government and eleven from the NGO
community, how pleased we all are to be part of this gathering in this
historic city. We have no doubt that these deliberations will also make
history as we consolidate the gains of the past decade and prepare a
pathway for achieving equality and greater opportunities for the women
of today and of the future.
May I also take this opportunity to bring you greetings from the
Government and People of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on the
occasion of this Fourth Conference.
To achieve our goal, we must work in concert -- state and civil society
-- for just as good governance at the national level requires the active
participation of all sectors of society in the development and progress
of a nation, so does that same rule apply in these confines. Trinidad
and Tobago is fully committed to open dialogue and the construction of
consensus and looks forward to hearing the views of the participating
states and the NGO community which has travelled so far to join us. The
distance between the NGO Forum and this conference will not be an
obstacle to this dialogue.
Trinidad and Tobago, a small twin-island country in the Caribbean, has a
multi-ethnic and multi-cultural population of some 1.2 million, slightly
over 50% of which are women, committed to a democratic way of life with
its characteristic elements of freedom and equality for all. Indeed, the
principle of equality is enshrined in our Constitution through which
fundamental right and freedoms are guaranteed "without discrimination,
by reason of race, colour, origin, religion [or] sex."
Our legal system and the State machinery supports, in the main, the
principle of gender equity within the larger context of social justice
for all. We have ratified the United Nations Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and it has
guided much of our subsequent legislation.
Since 1974, when the National Commission on the Status of women was
appointed, measures were adopted to encourage the elimination of
discrimination against women and to ensure the improvement of the status
of women. Since that time, major advances have been made, ensuring that
women have greater access to quality education and training and the
world of work; that affordable quality health care becomes a reality;
indeed, guaranteeing that we move much closer to achieving equality in
the sharing of power and decision-making, the full sharing of
responsibility in family life, the full economic empowerment of women
and, above all, the elimination of all forms of violence against women.
Much has been achieved; in my country today, there are no laws
discriminatory to women in terms of the right to vote, to hold public
office, to own property, to access education and training and to work.
Certainly, Trinidad and Tobago remains one among fewer than twenty-five
countries in which women comprise more than 15% of parliamentarians. We
have four women Ministers in Cabinet and have two women mayors out of
four. In our House of Assembly in Tobago, women comprise 33% of the
House.
In addition, 40% of the very senior positions in the Public Service are
held by women. While we may have shattered the glass ceiling in the
Public Service, this is not the situation in the Trade Unions and
Private Sector organizations where much remains to be done.
The process of consultation and interface that took place on both the
national and regional levels as my country prepared to participate in
this Conference involved the free exchange of ideas with individual
women from all sectors of society and women’s organizations nationally
and throughout the Latin American and Caribbean region.
The work was supported in large measure, by the research, documentation
and guidance provided by such inter-governmental organizations as the
Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), the Inter-American
Commission of Women (CIM) of the Organization of American States and the
United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(UN-ECLAC).
Above all, the work received the stamp of authenticity and validity from
the committed and unreserved involvement of the NGO community in
Trinidad and Tobago, a constant partner on the long road to Beijing.
With your permission, Madame Chairperson, I extend a public “thank you"
to each and every one of those individuals, organizations and inter-
governmental agencies. Their efforts contributed in no small way to
assisting us in arriving at national consensus on our priority areas for
future policy and action.
As a result of the consultation process I referred to before, the
Government of Trinidad and Tobago has identified four areas in which it
will commit itself to priority action to remove the remaining obstacles
to the advancement of women. They are:
(a) alleviating poverty among women;
(b) valuing the unwaged work of women;
(c) providing affordable health care, and
(d) eliminating violence against women.
POVERTY
Over the past decade or so, the Caribbean has found itself beset by
growing economic hardship. Circumstances dictated that urgent
adjustments be made not only in our spending habits but, in a more
general sense, to our overall fiscal management policies. In such a
climate of adjustment, it has become sadly evident that the more
economically disadvantaged among us have been the most adversely
affected and it has become painfully obvious that women make up a
significant percentage of the disadvantaged poor.
When women are poor, the cycle of negatives and deprivations that
accompany it are passed on to future generations. The existence of poor
women within a country stultifies the growth of that country for it
inhibits the maximum contribution of a vital section of its human
resources. My Government supports the view of the ILO that poverty
anywhere indeed constitutes a threat to prosperity everywhere.
With this in mind, and in keeping with the spirit of our commitment made
at the World Summit for Social Development, my country has initiated an
integrated and multi-pronged approach towards the eradication of
poverty, recognizing that its ill-effects are disproportionately
experienced by women.
At the macro-economic level, we are alert to developments and trends in
the global economy and are pursuing policies that would encourage growth
and expansion of the economy and generate employment. In my country's
medium Term Policy Framework for 1995-1997, we have also established a
number of measures which impact on the poor. These include:
(a) protection of socially disadvantaged and vulnerable groups;
(b) improved and increased access to quality educational services and
training;
(c) enhancement of health services;
(d) an improved social security system, and
(e) rationalization and expansion of housing services.
UNWAGED WORK
The measurement and valuation of the unpaid work of women, in particular
domestic or household work, was recognized in principle two decades ago
at the First World Conference on Women in Mexico City. Unfortunately,
many countries still have not put in place the policies needed to
recognize this valuable contribution to the economy.
Permit me to report with pleasure that on June 25th, 1995, a Bill for
Counting Unremunerated Work was passed in the Senate of Trinidad and
Tobago. This event represented the successful culmination of two decades
of consultation and collaboration among a wide cross-section of
individuals, NGOs and public and private sector agencies.
My country recognizes that evaluating unremunerated work in the home and
community is a strategy for equity as well as for increasing the self-
worth and self-esteem of a large section of the society.
A major feature of our legislation is that it provides for the
recognition of all unremunerated work including work performed in and
around dwelling places, the care of children, the handicapped, elderly
and other care services, agricultural work, work related to food
production, family businesses and volunteer and community work in the
formal and informal sectors of society. Additionally, the legislation is
deliberately non-prejudicial in that it is designed to recognize the
unremunerated work of both women and men.
The passage of this legislation is by no means the end of the road as
far as this issue goes. Indeed, it can be said to be just the tip of the
process of giving dignity and value to a much neglected area of
committed effort and service.
We expect that the Platform of Action will address this issue with very
specific recommendations and I call upon all countries to incorporate
enabling measures to recognize these contributions to the well-being of
society in their public accounts.
HEALTH CARE
Health is defined by the World Health Organization as "the state of
complete mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity."
We have found that factors that affect women's health in Trinidad and
Tobago include lifestyles, attitudes and behaviour. We are committed to
addressing the full range of health care requirements of women
throughout their life cycles.
At the recently concluded United Nations International Conference on
Population and Development, held last year in Cairo, Trinidad and Tobago
agreed to participate in a broad range of initiatives in respect of
reproductive rights and the provision of reproductive health care
services. We have not come here to join in any movement to weaken the
commitments of Cairo and will resist any attempts to do so.
VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is deeply concerned with the level
of gender-based violence within our society and has been actively
engaged in its eradication. We recognize that violence is perpetrated
against women of every class, race income level, culture, level of
education, age or religion. We affirm that violence against women
constitutes a violation of their human rights and fundamental freedoms
and is an offence against human dignity.
The Sexual Offences Act of 1986 sets protections for women and children
from sexual exploitation and sexual violence and provides for a closed
court in rape cases, sexual assault and any offences involving children.
The Domestic Violence Act of 1991 was among several pieces of
legislation enacted by the Government in pursuit of its commitment to
protect the rights of women and to provide them with swift due process.
In addition, a Juvenile Branch and Counseling Unit has been established
within the Police Service.
We are committed to a multi-sectoral approach to the prevention and
elimination of violence against women; an approach that emphasizes the
prevention of violence on the one hand and the criminal nature of the
act, on the other. To this end, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago
has decided to ratify the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention,
Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women and will shortly
deposit its instrument of ratification with the Organization of American
States.
Widespread public education programmes will be instituted to encourage
non-violent forms of conflict resolution. This will run simultaneous
with the promotion of stable family units in the society, the
prosecution of offenders and the institution of appropriate measures to
ensure the protection of women subjected to violence.
Madame Chairperson, I am proud to come from the Caribbean where we have
a long history of commitment to the defense of human rights, the
advancement of women and the recognition of their intrinsic worth as
human beings. Trinidad and Tobago stands ready to join with the rest of
the international community in making these commitments a reality for
the women of the world. We can do no less and they expect no less.
Our unity of purpose should be our main strength, buttressed by the
women from all walks of life who join us here. We will need to draw on
that strength to do our part to ensure that the Fourth World Conference
on Women lives up to the expectations of women and produces an
engendered platform of action and commitment that will be meaningful to
those millions of women who demand what is their birthright: the right
to live free of violence, the right to equality and the right to
participate fully in the shaping of their own destinies.
Allow me to thank you for the opportunity to address this gathering and
offer best wishes for the success of our deliberations.